Wednesday, January 30, 2008

The myth of Mahatma Gandhi

jan 30th, 2008

they say that you must never eat at a place called 'mother's'.

or play poker with a guy named 'doc'.

add to that: don't trust anybody named gandhi. with the nehru dynasty and the mainos taking over the name, and with parasites like arun gandhi making hay out of it, the name has become something to beware of. this, of course, assuming that mohandas k. was the god we have all been told he is. arvind does puncture that saintly image a bit, i guess.

What's in a name? A lot, feels the Delhi High Court. At least this is what is conveyed by an unprecedented direction given by the court on Wednesday deprecating practice of people adopting names that sound like designations.

The court favoured a law to ban it on the ground that people tend to misuse it. Justice Shiv Narayan Dhinga gave the order while disposing of a case pertaining to a property dealer named 'Judge Chawla' accused of grabbing a prime piece of land in Paschim Vihar area of the capital.

"Nobody can be allowed to name himself or his sons in the manner that the name looks like a designation. Somebody may name himself as Chief Justice Gupta or Law Minister Gupta to cheat others.

I consider that Legislature should take cognizance of such names and make appropriate law," the judge said. The judge was hearing a civil suit filed by a couple claiming Judge Gupta and one Rajeev Gupta trespassed on their property.”

In your zeal to denigrate Gandhi, you have gone missed important points.1. Gandhi was the person most successful in uniting the country for the freedom struggle. This was acknowledged by once his fan, then his critic, Bhagat Singh as well, who only aimed for popularity of his message getting out to the extent of Gandhi's.2. The British wanted to leave the country as it was when they came in, into a bunch of warring princely states. Gandhi's struggle for a unified country was instrumental in us having an India. I won't go into Jinnah's perfidy at this point of time.3. Gandhi stated that with non-violence, the British would one day, just pack up its bags and leave. That is what happened. True, all freedom fighters played their role, but most of even the hardened critics of Gandhi acknowledged his great contribution for a unified struggle. And his struggle was instrumental in the sepoys shifting loyalties away from the British. That was not the case earlier, remember Jalianwallah Bagh?4. Gandhi's struggles started at a time when anything foreign was considered good, and anything Indian was considered bad. Things have improved now, slightly. Instilling a sense of pride & self-confidence in the Indian mind was a task of unimaginable proportions. Gandhi did that. Sardar Vallabhai Patel, once a follower of British customs, left everything to follow Gandhi, and a person of his stature would listen to anything Gandhi said. Do you think you have better judgement than Sardar himself?5. It is clear that Mr.Lavakhare hasn't read much of Gandhi. Gandhi clearly states what he thinks of the Bhagavath Gita, that it is an internal struggle between good & bad, not to be taken literally. Please do your research beforehand, esp before disagreeing. He meditated every day on a verse on the Bhagavath Gita to show him the truthful & right way. At independence, he said that all work possible was done; now let us all chant Rama nama for completion of Swaraj.Gandhi was flawed, but he was a much better human being, and his achievements were much higher than what any of us can even hope to achieve.I am disappointed at the lack of research and presence of prejudice by writers in this blog, with reference to Gandhi.